Given my (rising senior) daughter’s dismal performance on standardized tests in general (she has horrible test anxiety to the point of passing out during the ACT last time she took it), she has decided to apply almost exclusively to test optional schools. My problem is, I have no idea what constitutes a safety school without looking at test score ranges. Her GPA is good, but not fantastic, being brought down mainly by her 9th grade marks. It is 3.33 including 9th grade and probably closer to a 3.7 if you exclude it. She goes to a small private school which offers no APs, but she will be taking calculus this upcoming year. Any ideas?
Does your school have Naviance? It can be very helpful. I’d also look at the Common Data Set for schools your daughter is considering. My S’s standardized test scores were so at odds with his grades and WISC IV scores (IQ test) that he didn’t even take the SAT. He composed a list made up entirely of test optional schools and has ended up at a fantastic school.
Here’s the Fairtest list of test optional schools with their USNWR rankings. I’d eliminate the test flexible schools, as they still require some standardized testing, and concentrate on the right side of the LAC list or the corresponding universities for your low match/likely list. Your D may want to look at a couple of safer schools that have EA or rolling admissions just so she’ll have an acceptance or two in hand before the regular acceptances come out. A school like Hartwick might be a good choice for this.
http://www.fairtest.org/sites/default/files/Optional-Schools-in-U.S.News-Top-Tiers.pdf
Good luck, and feel free to PM me.
The school’s GC and Naviance if they have it are probably your best source of information. If Calculus is the only AP level course (it doesn’t matter if it has the AP designation) she will probably not be in the running at highly selective colleges. Some colleges heavily discount freshman year grades, so I think you can have a reach or two that is based more on her current GPA, but you should also have some safeties that are safe for her overall GPA.
I am a huge fan of using EA and/or rolling admissions so that you have an acceptance in hand before the due dates for the other colleges. And if there isn’t an early acceptance you have time to add safer schools to the list.
How does she do on tests at school, as opposed to standardized tests? It may be more important to look at how the curriculum is handled. She may be better off at a school with projects and papers rather than midterms and finals.
@mathmom how do you determine (or find) which schools focus more on projects and papers rather than midterms and finals?
Well usually they boast about it. 
Ones that come to mind are Sarah Lawrence, Bard, Olin College of Engineering. St. Johns College (Annapolis or Santa Fe - great books program)
Even Harvard gives far fewer final exams than they used to. The big intro courses have them, but smaller seminars usually don’t.
You really have to pore over their websites and ask around. Hampshire is one such test-optional school. You might want to start a new thread asking for schools that emphasize projects and papers instead of exams. I think you’d find a heavy overlap with test-optional admissions schools.
also look at schools that don’t give out grades just evaluations like REED.
I am warry of 'test optional" unfortunately I really think that is to help the school with their rankings so they can take kids that might not have the resources to do well on test or kids they really want like minorities, first generations, athletes and not affect their rankings with lower SATs. especially at selective schools when they say test optional I really think that is for the above candidates but I could be wrong.
some schools like Northeastern and also Hamilton have second semester “entry” into freshmen year. this is a slick way the schools can admit kids they really want to increase diversity (see above) or kids they think will do well but didnt do well on standardized testing. by taking them second semester of freshmen yr they dont need to record them in their stats and affect their us news rankings. This could also be a good option.
Unfortunately the school does not have Naviance (it really is a tiny school). I am really at a loss for safeties. I do have a safety with rolling admissions on her list, but to tell the truth, it is not a good fit for my extremely academic child.
Unfortunately, without knowing her school it’s hard to know how rigorous her coursework has been. The lack of APs is not necessarily a problem. Some schools prefer not to offer AP’s, feeling their own upper level courses are tougher and more comprehensive.
@queen’smom I think for the purpose of picking safeties you have to assume that her 3.3 average is the one that will count. Hopefully, freshman year is discounted but you never know. So I would guess that a 3.3 would have to be in the top 50% for a school to be considered a safety. Schools where this is the case have pretty high acceptance rates.
You have two issues to manage. First, is the low test scores and second is finding schools where freshman grades are discounted.
There are quite a few great Catholic schools that could be good matches for her.
Safeties should land her in the 75% percentile or greater stats-wise. 50th percentile is a match.
My older daughter did well on standardized tests (we joke that it’s a family trait) and had a high ACT score. However, she hated traditional classroom tests and evaluations and picked several colleges to apply to based on the possibilities of flexible grading and an emphasis on projects and papers. Her high school GPA was about 3.5. Her top two contenders were Bennington (Vermont) and the University of Redlands (California). She ended up attending the Johnston Center for Integrative Studies, Redlands’ “school within a school,” and LOVED it.
Such guidelines have little meaning unless you know how often persons in those stat ranges get accepted/rejected. At selective colleges and others that emphasize non-stat criteria, it is quite common for persons in the 75th+ percentile stat ranges to be rejected. For example, when someone says test optional, one of the first colleges I think of is Sarah Lawrence. Their CDS marks 3 criteria as more important than both grades and test scores in admissions decisions. And the inside admission room article at http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/65135/ mentions some decisions consistent with this, as quoted below:
It is likely that the primary motivation behind these school’s choice spring admissions is enrollment load balancing. If all students start in the fall semester, the fall semester has higher enrollment than the spring semester, due to some students graduating a semester early or late. Starting some students in the spring semester allows the school to balance the enrollment across the fall and spring semesters, allowing the school to more completely use its existing capacity.
You can’t cover every situation or possibility on a forum.
I think you will find that schools where a 3.3 is average the acceptance rates are very high, thus making them safety schools for kids at the average or slightly above.
Sarah Lawrence is a good example. AVG GPA is a 3.4 with an acceptance rate of 77%. The chance a kid with an average GPA gets rejected is very low.
My top 50% statement of course wouldn’t apply as the average GPA rises for a particular school.
Data10’s point is exactly what is bothering me. There seems to be no good way to tell who gets accepted at these schools. Their reported numbers are meaningless unless you know exactly how they break down, and they do not share that information. I guess I am stuck with a less than ideal safety just to make her feel like she’ll get in somewhere.
@queen’smom Theoretically data10 is correct but from a practical standpoint incorrect.
If you look at safety schools were a 3.3 is the average GPA, it will correspond to high acceptance rates.
Here is another example, St. Michael’s in Vermont, an excellent school in an excellent area. 3.43 AVG GPA, 75% acceptance rate. 34% of accepted students had a lower GPA than your child.
Your child on the acceptance curve is close to 100%.
Muhlenberg would be a good match, 46% acceptance, test optional, 3.3 AVG GPA. You child’s chance is well, well above 46%.
Same caliber school as St. Mike’s but closer to the big NY, PA and NJ population centers, hence the lower admin rate.
Is there a way to search for colleges by average GPA? Catholic colleges are really not an option for us, but she is willing to look at women’s colleges.